The cost of a toxic workplace culture

New research shows two-thirds (61%) of people have taken long-term leave after experiencing a toxic workplace. The research, which was undertaken by Culture Shift, looked at responses from 1,000 people in a variety of sectors including the financial, healthcare, legal, insurance and public sectors. It looked at the workplace culture in their respective organisations and whether they’d experienced negative behaviour.

The results showed what a detrimental effect a toxic workplace can have on employees. 44% of those surveyed said they’d experienced problematic workplace behaviour such as bullying or harassment with two-thirds (61%) taking long-term leave as a result of negative behaviour, 42% of respondents said they’d left a workplace permanently because of a toxic culture. Other recent research from Glassdoor found that two-thirds of candidates would not take a job with a company with a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed.

As well as being damaging for employees, a toxic culture is costly for the business. As well as the cost of recruiting and training new staff - with the possibility of losing them too if the culture remains unchanged - any employment tribunal resulting from the behaviour could also end up being very costly.

With employees increasingly prioritising their work-life balance above all else, businesses need to offer not just a good salary but also a people focused environment.